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The rise of Trump: 26 weeks that changed 2016

Six months ago Wednesday, Donald Trump descended an escalator at Trump Tower and upended the 2016 presidential race. Here's a look, week by week, at some of the memorable developments in Trump's campaign thus far.

He deviated widely from his prepared remarks that day in an announcement speech that would be just the first taste of a style of campaign rhetoric that leaves some outraged and others lining up behind him in support. By mid-summer, he built a lead in national polls, and despite a deluge of inflammatory statements in the months since, nothing has derailed his front-runner status in the GOP race.

Now, with just seven weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, here's a look back, week by week, at some of the memorable developments in Trump's campaign thus far.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. …. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

Donald Trump announces his presidential run on June 16, 2015.(Photo: Richard Drew, AP)

Week 5: 'I like people that weren't captured'

Lindsey Graham tells CNN's State of the Union on July 12 that Trump is a "wrecking ball for the future of the Republican Party with the Hispanic community and we need to push back."

On July 14, a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll shows Trump atop the crowded GOP presidential field, though he fares the worst among the top seven GOP candidates in head-to-head matchups with Democrat Hillary Clinton.

On July 17, Trump says the Marines killed in the previous day's shooting at a military facility in Chattanooga, Tenn., “never had a chance” and called for an end to gun-free zones.

Week 6: 'The best way to win is to win as a Republican'

"The reality is that John McCain the politician has made America less safe, sent our brave soldiers into wrong-headed foreign adventures, covered up for President Obama with the VA scandal and has spent most of his time in the Senate pushing amnesty."

He makes an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on July 24 and addresses the possibility of a third-party bid:

"The best way to win is to win as a Republican. I do not want to do independent at all. Now if I'm treated poorly, that's one thing. If I'm treated well and with great respect and don't win, I would not do that. But if I'm treated poorly, I will do it."

Donald Trump boards his plane to depart from Laredo, Texas, after a visit to the border on July 23, 2015.(Photo: LM Otero, AP)

Week 7: Trump's supporters stick with him

Despite a tumultuous week following the McCain flap, Trump still sits atop the GOP field in polls released July 26.

On Aug. 6, Trump and the other nine candidates who ranked in the top 10 of polls meet at last in the Fox News debate. In the debate's opening moments, Trump signals that he won't rule out an independent bid. Trump seems to perform well enough in his first-ever debate to maintain his front-runner status, though his remarks regarding women prove controversial in the days ahead.

The next night, Trump continues his withering criticism of debate moderator Megyn Kelly:

"Well, I just don’t respect her as a journalist. I don’t think she’s very good. I think she’s highly overrated … She starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions, and you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever. She was, in my opinion, she was off-base."

Trump responds to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's closing remarks during the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena on Aug. 6, 2015, in Cleveland.(Photo: Andrew Harnik, AP)

Week 9: 'I said nothing wrong whatsoever'

Trump declines to apologize for his comments about Fox's Kelly. He tells CNN's State of the Union, “I said nothing wrong whatsoever" in one of several Sunday show appearances on Aug. 9. He also appears on NBC, CBS and ABC, but not Fox. He makes a return to Fox News two days later.

Week 10: 'The greatest wall that you've ever seen'

1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border.

2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced.

3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.

He sees no loss of momentum in polling, garnering 24% support among GOP registered voters in a CNN/ORC poll released Aug. 18, with Bush being the only other candidate to hit double digits in the nationwide poll.

He holds a town hall in Derry, N.H., on Aug. 19, at around the same time Bush holds a town hall in nearby Merrimack. In discussing immigration, he pledges to “build the greatest wall that you’ve ever seen ... If they call it the Trump Wall, it has to be beautiful.”

Donald Trump holds his GOP loyalty pledge at Trump Tower in New York on Sept. 3, 2015.(Photo: Richard Drew, AP)

Week 13: 'Look at that face!'

Trump hits the nation's capital on Sept. 9, joining fellow candidate Ted Cruz and Tea Party supporters to denounce the Iran nuclear deal. "We are led by very, very stupid people," he tells the crowd.

Later that day, in a moment that rivals his comments on McCain and Kelly, Rolling Stone pubilshes an article that describes Trump mocking fellow candidate Carly Fiorina’s looks.

"When the anchor throws to Carly Fiorina for her reaction to Trump’s momentum, Trump’s expression sours in schoolboy disgust as the camera bores in on Fiorina. ‘Look at that face!’ he cries. ‘Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!’ "

“Probably I did say something like that about Carly — I’m talking about persona, I’m not talking not about looks. … When I get criticized constantly about my hair, nobody does a story about ‘Oh, isn’t that terrible, they criticized Donald Trump’s hair.’ ”

"We got a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one. We know he’s not even an American. (Trump: We need the question.) But anyway. We have training camps brewing where they want to kill us. That’s my question. When can we get rid of them?"

Trump, not addressing what the man said about President Obama, replies:

"We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things. A lot of people are saying that. A lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We’re going to be looking into that and plenty of other things."

Donald Trump high-fives homecoming king Austin Cook as queen Eylse Pescott looks on during a rally at Urbandale High School on Sept. 19, 2015, in Urbandale, Iowa.(Photo: Charlie Neibergall, AP)

Week 15: Rubio in the cross hairs

Trump maintains his lead in a CNN/ORC poll released Sept. 20, but he drops 8 points since the network's poll earlier in the month. Carly Fiorina surges 12 points after another strong debate performance.

The next day, he and Ailes set a meeting for the following week “to discuss their differences of opinion regarding Fox’s coverage."

Trump ends the week with an appearance at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, where he brings along his childhood Bible and tells the audience that he's a faithful Christian who will fight for religious freedom. (He also dings Rubio again, calling him a "clown.")

Donald Trump holds up his Bible as he speaks during the Values Voter Summit on Sept. 25, 2015, in Washington(Photo: Jose Luis Magana, AP)

Week 17: 'I'm not getting out — I'm going to win'

“There’d be a major collapse of the race, and there’d be a major collapse of television ratings ... It would become a depression in television.”

Amid rumors that he could exit the race early in light of his polling lead tightening, Trump tells CNN, "I'm not getting out — I'm going to win."

A Quinnipiac poll released Oct. 7 shows Trump leading in three key swing states. “Those who were waiting for Donald Trump’s campaign to collapse will need to wait longer, at least in the three key states of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

At an Oct. 8 rally in Las Vegas, Trump invites a woman on stage, whom he says he's never met, while discussing a People magazine cover that features his family. She proclaims: "I’m Hispanic and I vote for Mr. Trump! Yes, Mr. Trump! We love you! We love you all the way to the White House!"

At a rally in Richmond the next day, he tells supporters that his biggest criticism of the debate was that no candidate was aggressive enough in going after Hillary Clinton, and he called Bernie Sanders a "maniac."

National polls from Fox and CBS show Trump and Carson continuing to lead the GOP field, with no other candidate breaking into double digits. Trump's response to Carson gaining on him? “He’s been getting a lot of ink on the Muslims and other things,” he tells ABC News on Oct. 14. “And I guess people look at that and they probably like it. Some people thought they wouldn’t like it, but they probably do.”

Despite Trump's insistence that he can self-fund his White House bid, his documents filed Oct. 15 with the Federal Election Commission showed that his campaign raised $3.9 million from July through September, with nearly all of that coming from other people's donations.

“I think I have a bigger heart than all of them. I think I’m much more competent than all of them. When you talk about George Bush, I mean — say what you want — the World Trade Center came down during his time."

“He was president, OK? Don’t blame him or don’t blame him, but he was president. The World Trade Center came down during his reign. If you look at Sandy Hook, those people are still begging for help. It’s a disaster.”

A group of supporters wave signs prior to a speech by Donald Trump during a rally in Richmond, Va., on Oct. 14, 2015.(Photo: Steve Helber, AP)

Week 19: A 'young intern' at fault

"Look, look, Jeb said, 'we were safe with my brother. We were safe.' Well, the World Trade Center just fell down.

"Now, am I trying to blame him? I'm not blaming anybody. But the World Trade Center came down. So when he said, we were safe, that's not safe. We lost 3,000 people, it was one of the greatest -- probably the greatest catastrophe ever in this country if you think about it, right?"

And Bush tells CNN's State of the Union:

"Look, my brother responded to a crisis, and he did it as you would hope a president would do. He united the country. He organized our country, and he kept us safe. And there's no denying that. The great majority of Americans believe that."

National polls released Oct. 19 and 20 from NBC News/Wall Street Journal and CNN/ORC continue to show Trump and Carson well ahead of their fellow GOP candidates. But a Quinnipiac poll released Oct. 22 shows Carson passing Trump in Iowa. “It’s Ben Carson’s turn in the spotlight,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

Donald Trump shows off a sign during a campaign stop on Oct. 23, 2015, in Doral, Fla.(Photo: Alan Diaz, AP)

Week 20: 'We need tremendous energy'

With Carson's rise in the polls, Trump continues his attacks on the new Iowa front-runner. “Ben Carson is super low energy, right?” Trump says on CNN’s State of the Union on Oct. 25. “Super low energy. We need tremendous energy.”

Week 21: High noon for Trump and Rubio

In the wake of the criticism over the third GOP debate, representatives from the candidates' campaigns meet on Nov. 1 to discuss demands for future debates. But the next day, Trump's campaign says it will continue to negotiate directly with the networks.

Nov. 2 marks the second dip in a week for Trump in national polling, with Carson leading the Republican field in a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll with 29% compared with Trump's 23%.

Rubio fires back two days later when speaking to reporters in New Hampshire. “I find it ironic that the only person running for president that’s ever declared bankruptcy — four times in the last 25 years — is attacking anyone on finances,” he says in response to Trump's comments on his use of a party-issued credit card when he served in the state Legislature.

Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Iowa Central Community College on Nov. 12, 2015, in Fort Dodge, Iowa.(Photo: Charlie Neibergall, AP)

Week 23: Matters of national security

As the world reels from the attacks in Paris, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Nov. 17 finds Trump and Clinton atop the list of presidential candidates who respondents felt were best equipped to deal with the threat of terrorism, each with about 20% support.

Week 24: 'Thousands of people were cheering'

"I want a database for the refugees that -- if they come into the country. We have no idea who these people are. When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we don't know if they're ISIS, we don't know if it's a Trojan horse. And I definitely want a database and other checks and balances."

"Well, I don't want to close mosques; I want to surveil mosques. I want mosques surveiled. ... And let me tell you, the people that are involved in those mosques, they know who the bad ones are and they know who the good ones are, but they don't talk."

During the same appearance, he also repeats his widely discredited claim, which he first discussed the previous day at an Alabama rally, about seeing television footage of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the fall of the World Trade Center on 9/11.

"Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering."

On Nov. 22, Trump defends his retweet two days earlier of an inaccurate, racially charged graphic on crime statistics:

Capping off Thanksgiving week, Trump faces criticism for mocking the movements of a New York Times reporter, Serge Kovaleski, who has a disability affecting his joints.

In a statement, Trump says he didn't know Kovaleski personally and was only "mocking the fact that the reporter was trying to pull away from a story that he wrote 14 years ago," referring to a story Kovaleski wrote while at The Washington Post that Trump had cited to back his controversial 9/11 comments.

But three days later — and several hours after CNN President Jeff Zucker proclaimed, “We do not pay candidates to appear at debates" — he changes his tune. “When you’re leading in the polls, I think it’s too big of a risk to not do the debate,” Trump tells The Washington Post. “I don’t think I have the kind of leverage I’d like to have in a deal and I don’t want to take the chance of hurting my campaign. So I’ll do the debate.”

Week 26: 'A total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States'

On Dec. 6, President Obama gives a rare Oval Office prime-time address on the U.S. fight against the Islamic State in the wake of the Paris attacks and San Bernardino shootings. Trump live-tweets the occasion and is underwhelmed:

“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.”

He doesn’t back down from his position in the days following, claiming it has “tremendous support” and that he has gotten calls from people worried about terrorist attacks who “just want to see something happen.”

On Dec. 10, The Washington Post reports that top figures in the Republican Party are preparing for a brokered convention scenario, recounting a Trump-centric discussion in which “several longtime power brokers argued that if the controversial billionaire storms through the primaries, the party’s establishment must lay the groundwork for a floor fight, in which the GOP’s mainstream wing could coalesce around an alternative.”